Review of the 1st Test of the Sachin (India vs West Indies) Series

The first test of the series which was scheduled to have Sachin finish his test career in India (OK, we also had another reason of having some additional revenue from the broadcast rights) ended in 3 days. Here is the review of this game. 

West Indies started off with winning the toss and brought in Sheldon Cottrell for Kemar Roach and India giving Rohit Sharma and Shami Mohammed their test caps. I was personally surprised that Shami got the nod ahead of Umesh Yadav (I even mentioned in my post about the 15 that Umesh was a default selection in the playing XI), but it turned out to be a brilliant move. Rohit Sharma ahead of Ajinkya Rahane was also not a surprise with the form Rohit has been this year and scoring a century and double century in the recently concluded ODI series against the Aussies. 

Dhoni before the match was cribbing about missing out Ravindra Jadeja, but didn't mention anything about Ashwin. Ashwin has been performing better with the bat than Jadeja especially in the tests. In the Australia test series Ashwin did fabulously well with the ball also. He is currently ranked # 1 in the ICC all rounder rankings in the world and still our captain doesn't recognize him as an all rounder. 

West Indies started off well scoring at around 3.5 runs an over for the first 10 overs. Bhuvaneshwar got rid of Gayle in the 11th Over with little bit of away movement and Shami picked up his first wicket with a bouncer to Powell. The 3rd wicket partnership between Bravo and Samuels took windies well past the 100 mark. Shami started reversing the ball and got Samuels bowled who had scored 65 runs at a pretty quick pace. What followed was West Indies' gift to India with Bravo being run out, Ramdin being bowled (tempted to say Speak now nah Dinesh) and Sammy hitting it straight to the only person on the boundary (I was so reminded of Srikanth's wicket in the 92 world cup match against New Zealand, early days of field restrictions when he hit Deepak Patel straight down the throat of the long on fielder). Tendulkar brought on for the last over before tea (he picked his last test wicket in 2010) picked up the wicket of Shillingford in his 5th ball. Ashwin and Shami finished the rest. West Indies ended up with 234. Dhoni dropped couple of catches which was a surprise. 

India started off cautiously with Dhawan and Vijay and India finishing day 1 at 37/0. On day 2 Shillingford started spinning the web around the openers. Dhawan was unfortunate with the ball keeping very low which bowled him but he could have been out the previous ball also which almost carried back to Shillingford. Vijay didn't want to keep the Eden crowd waiting for long for the moment they were waiting for and completely missed the ball when he stepped out and got stumped. Sachin came and he stuck two beautiful boundaries (was he trying to do what a normal player who is tensed will do, start hitting out? don't think so as both were beautiful strokes and not slogs). Was surprised to see Pujara trying to play the bouncer over the keeper's head and ended up giving an easy catch to Ramdin and Cottrell picked up his first wicket. Nigel Llong put an end to Sachin's innings with a poor decision but Tendulkar was completely beaten by the doosra from Shillingford. Kohli followed immediately to Shillingford again defending with hard hands. Dhoni started attacking Shillingford immediately and things started changing a bit from then on. India went into lunch at 120/5 and in deep trouble. Dhoni went after a few overs nicking one to Ramdin of Best and India were in deep trouble with India at 156/6. Then came a beautiful partnership between Rohit and Ashwin. Rohit taking his good form into the tests too. Ashwin clearly telling everyone that he is far better a batsman than other so called all rounders. Rohit went onto make a century and Ashwin ended up at 92 at stumps. Sammy could have tried bowling Samuels or Gayle. India ended day 2 at 354/6 a lead of 120 runs. 

Day 3 - India would have wanted to build a pretty huge lead and take the score past 500 runs but that was not to be. India were all out for 453 around lunch. Rohit out at 177 and Ashwin at 124 and Bhuvaneshwar and Shami not troubling the scorers much. Ramdin dropped two catches returning the favor to Dhoni. 

West Indies started cautiously and Gayle was the first to go trying to pull a bouncer and giving an easy catch to Kohli of Bhuvaneshwar. Windies were 33/1 and Powell and extras were zero then. The second wicket partnership added 68 runs and after that only person to show some resilience was as usual Chanderpaul. Samuels was probably a bit unlucky to be given leg before when the ball hit him on the back thigh pad. You can give someone leg before when the ball hits the thigh pad only when the batsman is squatting or they are pretty short like Mushfiqur Rahim or Sachin Tendulkar but definitely not Marlon Samuels who is well over 6 feet :) Shami bowled beautifully reversing and Ashwin also picked away 3 wickets. Shami ended the second innings with a 5-for and the match with a 9 wickets. Windies were all out for 168 and India won by innings and 51 runs. They collapsed from 101/1 to 168 all out. 

Rohit Sharma was the man of the match. I would have personally preferred either Shami or Ashwin. 

Shami and Rohit had dream debuts and Ashwin (5 wickets and 124 runs) had a great match. Other than these 3 not much contributions from others. Read a stat that bulk of Bhuvaneshwar's wicket has come in the first 15 overs, that is a definite cause of worry. Ojha was a bit unlucky in the first innings as Dhoni dropped a couple of catches but didn't have much to do in the second innings.  

What to look forward to Match # 200

India should be a bit worried about the top order's batting against Shillingford. Windies don't have it in them to fight and I don't see much chance for them in the next match either. 

The match # 199 didn't really go the way the fans would have wanted it with Sachin ending up with 10 runs and 1 wicket. Fans would be loving to see Sachin score more at Wankhade. However, as Geoffrey Boycott mentioned in his Bowl at Boycs there is just too much pressure on Sachin and like what happened to Bradman don't think we can expect a big score from Sachin. I would prefer the way Rahul and VVS left through press conferences and not with such hoopla. 

Some records from this match

1)     Shami's bowling figures was the best by an Indian fast bowler in a match on debut and second best by a indian bowler after Narendra Hirwanis 16 wicket 

2)     Rohit's 177 was the second best by an Indian batsman on debut after Dhawan's 187

3)     280 run 7th wicket partnership between Ashwin and Rohit was the best for India for the 7th wicket and 2nd best for all wickets against west indies. 

Some funny things from this match 

·        CAB got its timing completely wrong, they had ordered 199 kgs of rose petals to be air dropped and got permission from air traffic control also but they had planned it for day 4 & 5. Windies messed up the plans. 

·        I was hearing the commentary on radio when heading to work on the 3 days and some real good gems from the commentary

1)     First slip thoda peechae hain, second slip kuch agae hain and third slip kuch our agae hain(First slip is bit back, second slip is a bit forward and third slip is bit more forward)... Anyone who has watched a bit of cricket would know how the slips are positioned. Do they have to talk something to fill time?

2)     Rohit is nearing the score of Dhawan and cricket is a game of great statistics and permutations and combinations.. ok there are statistics in cricket and permutations and combinations are there in statistics but permutations and combinations and cricket? Doesn't make sense. 

3) Tino Best's pace would not trouble the Indian batsman, he is bowling gentle medium - He was bowling well over 140 consistently :)